Verizon Unveils ‘Viewdini’ Video Streaming App For Android

Verizon Wireless has taken the wraps off of a new Android app that will allow customers to find and view videos from a plethora of different sources and watch them directly from their mobile device.

The official announcement came Tuesday at the 2012 Cable Show in Boston, and according to AllThingsD reporter Ina Fried, the app — which has been dubbed “Viewdini” — will feature content from Netflix, Hulu Plus, Comcast Xfinity, and mSpot at launch, with other media providers expected to sign on in the near future.

The app will be demonstrated at the convention’s floor and will reportedly be made available by the end of the month on 4G LTE Android devices and “soon” on other Verizon products, CNET‘s Marguerite Reardon reported on Tuesday. It will be available free of charge to subscribers and can be downloaded from Google Play, she added.

According to Nathan Ingraham of The Verge, during the announcement Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead called the platform “one of our most important of the year,” describing it as “a mobile video portal for aggregation and delivery of mobile content.”

“We are just seeing a hunger for people wanting to watch video“¦ I think this will capture the audience´s imagination,” Mead added in an interview with Fried. However, as the AllThingsD writer pointed out, “one of the big challenges is that although the service is plenty fast, watching just a handful of hours of video in a month could put a customer over their data allotment.”

In response to those concerns, the Verizon Wireless CEO noted that the company sends customers text alerts when they reach 50%, 75%, and 90% of their monthly data usage limits. He told Fried that the company had competitive price rates for those who want to purchase additional usage.

Users of the service will be able to search Viewdini’s library by title, actor, or even keyword, and some of the content can be streamed at no additional cost, while other programs can be rented, or purchased either outright or by subscription. Mead also noted that Viewdini will also have in depth information about the television shows and motion pictures they cover, similar to IMDB.